Experts believe that China and US push Pakistan to arrange talks as a “go between” but Pakistan has lost that balancing power long ago and now Taliban are gaining grounds so they should not listen Pakistan or anybody else and talks may be held once they (Taliban) get ground successes in provinces where they are already engage.
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Face-to-face talks were expected to take place in Pakistan in early March, but Afghan officials said in recent days that they have been postponed for at least a week.
And the Taliban have been battling Afghan forces in Helmand province, with Afghan forces last month withdrawing from certain districts there despite complaints from local leaders.
And the Afghanistan, Pakistani, Chinese and USA governments together “invite(d) all Taliban and other groups to participate … in the first round of direct peace talks” slated for early March in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The U.S. Department of State said, “The Taliban have a choice: to join good-faith negotiations for peace, or continue to fight a war in which they are killing their fellow Afghans and destroying their country”.
Pakistan had offered to host the first round of direct talks between the Afghan government and Taliban representatives following the conclusion of the fourth round of Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) meeting late last month.
The factors cited by the group now for not returning to the negotiation table include intensification of operations by Afghan forces, deployment of United States troops to the battlefield and their participation in air strikes and continuing night raids. No date was set, and no names of participants were announced.
Direct talks began last summer in Pakistan, but quickly fell apart after Afghan officials who were concerned about the authority of the insurgent delegation leaked word that the Taliban’s long-time leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for two years.
Ashraf Ghani said the Taliban is facing a major test to choose whether they want peace or war. On February 21, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif made a one-day trip to Qatar and held meetings with top Qatari leadership including Ameer of Qatar in an attempt to smooth out the rough edges obstructing the peace-process in Afghanistan and to lobby in order to engage Taliban’s Qatar political office in the peace talks.
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The Taliban, who have stepped up their nationwide insurgency, on Saturday bluntly rejected their overtures, saying “talks will yield no results”. Both the Taliban and the government have maintained steady military operations throughout the winter, normally a time of decreased hostilities.
